More work to be done on mortgage scammers

In response to your Wednesday story, “Ex-Las Vegan convicted in mortgage scam”: Kudos to Daniel Bogden, U.S. attorney for Nevada, on his recent conviction of yet another scammer in the mortgage fraud scandal that plagues this country. Bravo for taking on the bad guys.

Unfortunately, his accomplishment is the equivalent of convicting the doper on the street corner peddling a few ounces of marijuana while completely ignoring the drug cartels that are committing murder and destroying our border.

The institutional banks were complicit in not only abandoning their quality-control obligations to identify fraud external to their operations, they were performing acts of fraud against their own customers directly. The proof is out there, but it is being quashed, purposefully.

When the media and the U.S. attorney finally decide to go after the big fish, then I will be impressed.

Laura McSwain

Las Vegas

Liberal outrage

To the editor:

I agree with Sen. Harry Reid that Rush Limbaugh went over the line in describing college student Sandra Fluke as a “slut.” It was an unfortunate choice of words.

Having said that, I would like the senator to explain to me where his outrage was when liberal hate monger Bill Maher said of conservative commentator Michelle Malkin, “If you showed Michelle Malkin Obama’s resume without saying who it was, she’d name her vibrator Obama.” Or when Keith Olbermann called her “a mashed up bag of meat with lipstick on it.”

How about when liberal talk show host Ed Shultz called conservative Laura Ingraham a “right-wing slut”?

The senator’s outrage was nonexistent in those cases because those attacks were on conservative women. His hypocrisy is stunning.

As for Sandra Fluke: Pay for your own birth control. I might point out that abstinence costs nothing. Nothing to Ms. Fluke and nothing to the taxpayers. Apparently, Ms. Fluke has failed to consider that alternative.

Rick Ainsworth

Henderson

Fish story

To the editor:

The Valentine’s Day count of Moapa dace is being heralded by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Southern Nevada Water Authority as good news and a sign that the species is on its way to recovery (“Rare Moapa dace increasing,” Tuesday Review-Journal). Perhaps, but the numbers are still stacked against the fish’s long-term survival, considering that between 2007 and 2008, the population count dropped by over 500, or nearly the number of fish counted this year.

Unforeseen or even unobserved changes in the dace’s ecosystem and microhabitats could easily send the species over the brink to extinction.

And a dark cloud looms on the horizon for the dace — the groundwater development projects in Coyote Springs Valley in Lincoln County and, largest of all, the unneeded and preposterous Southern Nevada Water Authority groundwater grab.

That is why the Center for Biological Diversity filed suit against the Fish and Wildlife Service for not adequately protecting the springs that give life and habitat to the Moapa dace. A slight increase in numbers is better than any decline, but if this species is to survive the groundwater feeding its springs must be protected.

Rob Mrowka

Las Vegas

The writer is an ecologist and conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity.

Going home

To the editor:

Regarding the Bishop Gorman sports controversy (“NIAA, Gorman discuss imbalance,” Wednesday Review-Journal):

If you can’t beat them, take your ball and go home. What a great lesson to teach our kids. Is it any wonder that the best students and athletes are bailing on the public schools?

John Orwick

Pahrump

MDA and firefighters

To the editor:

As the parents of a son who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a disease that affects one in 3,500 boys, we want the firefighters in Clark County to know how grateful we are to them for the work they do for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. They’ve been helping MDA families for many, many years.

We have been a member of the MDA family for more than eight years, and in that time the MDA has done so much to help improve our son’s quality of life. They helped pay for his power wheelchair, which gives him a sense of independence. They help pay for leg braces and flu shots.

Most importantly, they provide funding for research to help find a cure for this terrible disease.

We are upset that Clark County firefighters in won’t be able to do work for the MDA any longer while they’re on duty. From our visits with them at the station, and time our son has spent with firefighters at MDA summer camp (on a volunteer basis), we know they enjoy using the time in between life-saving calls to help the MDA.

The MDA gives us clinic services for my son at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, and they sponsor a summer camp every year that’s “better than Christmas” for Josh and other kids who have a muscle disease. These things would not be possible if the firefighters weren’t there for us.

We are always grateful for the amazing generosity of the firefighters and Las Vegans, and we want them to know they’ve made a real difference in all of our lives.

Kristi Camperi

Henderson